Assessment: Assessment is seen throughout our world and workplaces, but it has a very distinct presence in today s classrooms, including my own. Classroom assessment involves collecting, evaluating, using data to drive instruction, and to make decisions that will improve and continue student learning. Assessment in classrooms involves finding ways to enhance student strengths and eliminate or reduce student weaknesses. I believe assessment is necessary for effective teacher decision making; my teaching style incorporates a wide variety of assessments. After all, teaching and assessment coexist in dynamic interaction, each feeding and influencing the other (Mcmillan, 2011, p.2). While there is a heavy emphasis on standardized testing in today s classrooms to assess students, my classroom incorporates all types of assessment including preassessments, authentic, summative, formal and informal formative assessments. Formative assessment can be thought of as the continual assessment process. I believe it is the most important form of assessment because it allows teachers and students to make necessary changes before a unit progresses. Formative assessment involves gathering evidence of student learning, providing feedback to students, and adjusting teaching strategies to enhance achievement (Mcmillan, 2011, p. 99). Formative assessment provides the necessary information for my students to understand their own progress and provides me with fuel for feedback. Teachers may either extend and praise student understanding or clear misconceptions and eliminate deficiencies. Formative assessment should improve student motivation along with their learning. I have found that my students try harder when I let them know what correct steps they are taking and strategies to improve missteps. There are two types of formative assessment that teachers should incorporate into the classroom, informal and formal formative assessment.
Formal formative assessments tend to be planned activities that contain a specific order of activities (Mcmillan, 2011). The activities are assessed by the teacher before the activities in the unit proceed. Teachers reflect on the results and decide what students need to learn. When teaching a social studies unit to my third grade class during student teaching, I asked them to fill out a short worksheet that served as a pretest; it allowed me to know what they knew about Brazil. The worksheet simply asked the students to decide if statements about Brazil were true or false. This was essential in designing the assessment because it is important to keep formative assessments non-threatening (Mcmillan, 2011, p. 121). Students feel most comfortable when they feel they are not being graded, can work at their own pace, and are not being compared to other students. By emphasizing that the sheet would not be graded, I was able to fully assess what students knew and how to design my unit. From the pre-assessment worksheet, I gathered information that told me most students knew that Brazil had a rainforest, but they were not sure where exactly Brazil was located. This helped me plan more geography based lessons. Formal formative assessments may also include activities such as in-class assignments. In-class assignments that involve seat work or individual work must involve active participation of the teacher; he or she should circulate, check work, and provide feedback to students (Mcmillan, 2011, p. 123). One in-class activity that I used during my general education student teaching placement required students to show what they remembered about Brazil by writing a postcard as if they visited the country. This lesson plan allowed me to walk around and provide feedback to students as they drafted their postcards and the completed postcards allowed me to assess their level of comprehension. I was able to gage student knowledge on Brazil at that point in the unit and was able to clear up miscommunications. Miscommunications included ideas held
by students such as all Brazilians are from Portugal. I was able to review the materials on descent with them and we reviewed that there are Indigenous People and Africans in Brazil. Quizzes are also a form of formal formative assessment used to provide feedback to the students and teachers. During my unit on Brazil, I gave the students a short quiz that served as a mid-assessment. I graded the assignment so that they could see where their progress was, but the grade was not recorded in the grade book. I explained to students that the grade they received was indicative of how much they had learned, where they could improve, and how I could improve. I noticed questions that the majority of students missed and developed ways to re-teach that strategy. I also looked at students as individuals and spent time clarifying their misconceptions and assisting them before the final test was administered. According to Stull, Varnum, Ducette, and Schiller, While students across the achievement spectrum should benefit from the incorporation of formative assessment techniques, it has been argued that the effects should be more notable for the lower achieving students, and research has supported this position (2011, p. 31). Throughout the unit of Brazil, I found this to be true. The lower achieving students benefited more from formative assessment feedback; they needed more clarity and instruction from me to master the material. The responses through their formative assessments enabled me to understand where lower achieving students strengths and weaknesses were and allowed me to assist them accordingly. I saw the most improvement from pre-assessment to the final summative assessment in the lower achieving students. I was able to look at students as a whole and as individuals throughout the unit on Brazil to assess where their specific needs were. When reflecting on this unit, I think I could have made even better use of the mid-assessment by interviewing students on how I could improve my instruction. I would
have been able to focus on the questions many students struggled with by understanding their needs and what I could have changed. The feedback I received from formal and informal assessment drove my instruction which is evident when looking at the progression of my unit plan. Feedback is important not only to teachers, but to the students as well. Feedback for students serves two functions for students to indentify problem areas and to provide reinforcement of successful learning and accomplishments. Feedback for the teachers allows them to identify how successful instruction was and to identify necessary changes. It distinguishes between group and individual problems and can be used to suggest solutions, such as specific group work or individual intervention (Stull, Varnum, Ducette, & Schiller, 2011, p. 30). From my initial pre-assessments, I was able to gauge students background knowledge of Brazil which provided me the background and support I needed to understand students level of understanding. This allowed me to provide feedback and watch for progression. Activities such as the postcard activity helped me understand that students had a firm grasp of the climate and rainforest in Brazil as a whole. The mid assessment helped me understand that students had grasped the geography portion but were struggling with the history of Brazil. I was able to adapt my instruction accordingly for the summative assessment. I planned reviews and chose new reading materials on the history of Brazil after I realized the first reading materials were too difficult. To ensure student progress, I provided feedback whenever and wherever appropriate. My feedback was always given during or immediately after the student performance, this allows students to work on their deficits and increase strengths while they are on the task and will retain the information (Mcmillan, 2011, p. 140). I provided feedback to the group as a whole and as individuals. Group feedback consisted of what the class was successful in learning and assessing what strategies worked for them that
would increase their learning. Individual feedback focused on individual student s strengths and weaknesses; we would discuss past skills and strategies that worked for the students and what strategies seemed ineffective. As a teacher, I was able to assess myself. I knew that if the whole class was struggling on a subject, it was time to assess my own teaching. I adopted correctional instructives by slowing down, choosing more appropriate reading level materials, reviewing materials, presenting subject matter with new materials, and working with students in smaller groups and as individuals. I differentiated the instruction for students by ensuring the material was presented in multiple formats, such as audio and visual, providing notes to students who needed them, grouping students according to ability level during reading exercises, and allowing students to chose from a variety of performance based tasks that fit their needs. When I praised students, I specified what they were doing correct by identifying specific behaviors. Summative assessment differs from formative assessment in several key ways. I like to remember the difference as summative assessment is an assessment of learning while the information from formative assessment is for learning (Clark, 2008). Summative assessments are used to document student performance. They are used to monitor and record student proficiency, to give students grades, to report to parents, and for selection in specific programs (Mcmillan, 2011, p. 157). Test anxiety is an issue affecting most students. As a teacher, I believe it is essential to eliminate tension by establishing the correct conditions. Before administering the unit test on Brazil, the students and I engaged in a review game. This allowed the students to understand what type of questions they should expect on the test and what format those questions would come in. I made sure to cover all topics that would be on the exam and in the same percentages students could expect to see specific topics on the exam. For the game, we played a game called trash ball. This game required the class to split into heterogeneous groups; I
split them so that each group was a mixture of lower and higher achieving students. Each group was given the opportunity to answer a question correctly and if they did, they were allowed to send one player throw a large ball into a trash bin to earn points. This type of review reduced anxiety because students could work with teammates to formulate answers. The review provided them with insight into what to expect on the exam, and they enjoyed the activity. The game also provided me with feedback that cleared misconceptions and problems areas before the test was administered. My experience at Dutchess County Boces developed my understanding of how assessment differs in special education. Understanding the goals set forth in the student s Individualized Education Plan (IEP) is particularly important in assessment in special education. Teachers must learn what areas each student needs to work on and how to meet these unique needs that often extend beyond academic needs and require emotional support as well. While student teaching at Dutchess County Boces, I worked with a 13 year old boy classified with autism and emotional disturbances. As I worked with the student, my cooperating teacher and I decided to work on one particular goal in his IEP. This goal fell under the speech/language category and required him to follow multi-step verbal directions and to comprehend and use yes or no questions. The stated goal was to complete both of these goals with 60 % success with moderate assistance by the middle of February. To accomplish this task, I began working with the student on listening comprehension exercises that required the student to listen to instructions that asked the student to color pages and write phrases according to prompts. I worked with the student over a course of 4 weeks and documented his progression with his ability to properly listen to directions and execute the correct response. The first worksheet resulted in much frustration. This was evident in the messy appearance of the sheet
that was a result of his scribbling. He needed directions repeated 5 or more times and when he did not understand, he would violently attack himself and scream. Due to his auditory processing difficulties, he was very distracted by other noises around him particularly other students and his attention was diverted from the task at hand. The activity caused much anxiety with the student so it was necessary to assure him that he was not being graded. These worksheets served as a version of ongoing formative assessment in his progress. Each day, I would provide the student with a new worksheet and read him the prompts; I would record his progress in a daily log. In this log, I would record the number of directions that were followed correctly, the number of times redirection was needed, and the number of outbursts that the student had that day. This log enabled me to see the student s progress over the four week span and to adapt instruction accordingly. I learned that the student enjoyed when I gave him small hints or when redirected, rather than repeating the whole phrase I would give him a choice of two things I might have said and he chose the correct one. This style helped limit the number of outbursts, although other students in the room acting up remained a consistent trigger. Despite this, he did show progress overtime. His final worksheet served as a summative assessment for the unit on listening skills. It was evident that he had made progress during this time as seen between the first and last sheets. The more information teachers have about students, the more decisions they are able to make. Information drawn from assessment provides a clearer picture about students needs, strengths, and weaknesses. The information I collected from assessment drove my instruction. It informed me how to alter my instruction to produce successful students.
Standards The use of assessment in my classroom aligns with standards four and ten. Standard four calls for teachers to evaluate plans relative to long and short-term goals and adjust them to meet student needs and enhance learning. Evidence of long-range planning and curriculum development is evident through my ability to develop a unit plan for a whole class and to modify the instruction to meet their needs. Additionally, I am able to plan on a long term scale for an individual student which is apparent from my work with a special education student on a listening comprehension unit plan. Short term planning is evident based upon my formative assessments and their implications on student learning. For my unit plan on Brazil, I took into account the state standards for social studies as well as individual student needs as indicated by their IEPs and adapted curriculum accordingly. In both general and special education, I ensured that all learning experiences were relevant to learners. Standard four requires teachers to select and create learning experiences that are relevant to learners and are appropriate for curriculum goals. For my unit on Brazil, I ensured that my third grade students were able to relate to students of their own age in Brazil and they were able to put themselves in the shoes of another culture. They tried the language, food, and celebrations of the culture to absorb the material; they learned through real life tangible experiences. In my special education teaching, I was able to incorporate the student s interest in coloring into the listening activity while maintaining an appropriate level of difficulty. Standard four also requires teachers to build their teaching around the principles of effective construction. My instruction was based on principles of effective instruction such as active learning, problem solving, collaboration to explore new topics, and building upon prior knowledge. I designed lesson plans and activities with individual needs in mind. These decisions were based not only on IEP information, but also on student interests. I adapted curriculum
including the way material was presented, the format in which it was presented, reviewed challenging materials, provided choice of activity where appropriate, varied level of materials, and incorporated students personal interests. I worked as an active planner by thinking about my students learning needs including my teaching style Additionally, I have met the goals of standard ten through my experiences in student teaching. Standard ten requires teachers to employ a variety of formal and informal assessment techniques that will enhance and monitor knowledge of learning along with evaluating student progress and performances. Teachers should also modify instructional approaches and learning strategies. I have employed a variety of formal and informal assessment strategies in a way that helped to develop my students. A wide array of assessment techniques have provided valuable feedback to my students and myself. Employed techniques have included teacher observation, worksheets, pre-assessments, mid-assessments, quizzes, homework, group work, exit slips, self assessments, authentic assessments, logs, questioning, testing students, etc. Standard ten requires teachers to use assessment strategies that involve learners in self-assessment activities to help them become aware of their own learning behaviors and to set personal goals. Self assessment activities are evident throughout my teaching. I have students share their understanding through formal and informal questioning and provide feedback that allows students to reflect on their own learning. Standard ten also calls for teachers to evaluate the effect of class activities on individuals and the class as a whole. The teachers should collect information through observations, questioning, and analysis of student work. I continually collected evidence that allowed me to view the class as a whole. I looked for the most frequently missed and correct questions to assess what should be taught better and what strategies were working. I was able to
adapt my instruction accordingly. I also did this for individual students by looking at their particular strengths and weaknesses. I was able to suggest ways for students to try new strategies and differentiate instruction in a way that would benefit individual student needs and interests. Lastly, standard ten requires teachers to maintain useful records of student work and performance and to communicate student progress knowledgably and responsibly based upon the information gathered. This information should be shared with students, parents, and other colleagues. I kept organized records of student work including formative and summative assessments as well as daily activity logs that enabled me to address student progress in a knowledgeable way. This allowed me to accurately discuss student growth and struggles with colleagues as well as my students. I used my gathered data to receive advice and assistance from my co-teachers and teachers aides throughout my unit. All evidence gathered was copied and provided to my co-teachers to ensure that this information was available for parents.
References Clark, I. (2008). Assessment is for learning: Formative assessment and positive Learning interactions: Florida Journal of Educational Administration and Policy. 2(1). McMillan, James H.. Classroom assessment: principles and practice for effective standardsbased instruction. 5th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon, 2011. Print. Stull, J., Varnum, S., Ducette, J., & Schiller, J. (2011). The many faces of formative assessment. International Journal Of Teaching And Learning In Higher Education, 23(1), 30-39.